{ frigori contrarie totus."
Such were the popular dietetics, and the almanacks were made the vehicle of communicating them. As late as the year 1659, Edmund Gayton, author of the Festivous Notes on Don Quixote, put forth a book in verse entitled The Art of Longevity, or a Dietetical Institution. He had graduated in physic at Oxford, but in his book he plays the part of a Merry Andrew more than that of a physician. The book, however, is curious as well as rare.
S. W. SINGER.
EPIGRAM ON DR. FELL.
(Vol. v., pp. 296. 333.)
Your correspondent E. F. may very probably have been informed, by ladies intimate with the Sheridan family, that Tom Sheridan composed the lines on Dr. Fell, respecting whose author and subject inquiries were made by a querist in page 296.; but it is nevertheless quite untrue. My memory of those lines goes back to a date earlier than Tom Sheridan's capacity for writing an epigram; and this on Dr. Fell may be found, if memory does not deceive me, in the Elegant Extracts in Verse, of a date at least as early as Tom Sheridan's work. The subject of the epigram was Dr. Fell, who held the deanery of Christ Church with the bishopric of Oxford, in the times of Charles II. and James II. Its author probably put it into circulation anonymously, as is usual with such brief specimens of personal satire.
As lodged in my memory, the third line was,—
"But this I'm sure I know full well."
That Dr. Fell, with some learning and a character for loyalty, had somewhat in him which a discerning observer could not like, is become notorious since the publication of his correspondence with the obsequious and unprincipled Earl of Sunderland respecting Locke, whom James II. wished the Dean to deprive of the income he received as a student of Christ Church. (See Appendix to Fox's History of Early Part of Reign of James II.) Dr. Fell there tells the Earl that he had long watched Mr. Locke, and made "strict inquiries," but that no person had ever heard him speak a word against the government. He adds, that language disparaging Locke's political friends had frequently been used for the treacherous purpose of provoking such replies as might have been used to his ruin, but hitherto all in vain; and that, as he had withdrawn to the Continent, some other plan must now be adopted. He accordingly proposes a mode of ensnaring him, subjoining, that if the King would simply order his expulsion, the mandate should be obeyed, without asking for any proof of his deserving such a sentence. This was accordingly done; but in two short years the circumstances of all the parties were changed. The Bishop and Dean was gone to appear before Him who has said, "Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment;" the King had withdrawn to the Continent, expelled by his own terrors, and deprived of his inheritance; Locke was returning to his native land, to be counted one of its chief ornaments; the Earl of Sunderland had betrayed his master, and was desiring to be allowed to do any dirty work for another.
H. W.